Smart Governance

The Green Bank, which the DC Council voted to establish in July, will provide public money in the form of loans, leases and other mechanisms to help fund green projects that expand renewable energy, reduce energy costs and GHG emissions, and create green jobs. The Green Bank will initially be funded at $7 million a year for five years, with that money generated from the city’s renewable energy development fund, which was created for utilities and energy suppliers to pay into in the form of alternative compliance payments if they do not meet carbon emissions goals in DC.

In the approach to the Smart Cities Mission, the objective is to promote cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean and sustainable environment and application of ‘Smart’ Solutions. The focus is on sustainable and inclusive development and the idea is to look at compact areas, create a replicable model which will act like a light house to other aspiring cities. The Smart Cities Mission of the Government is a bold, new initiative.

Australian cities have long been an important economic and social asset and will be more important than ever in the 21st century. Our cities provide great opportunities for innovation and productivity in the global knowledge-based economy and are recognised as great places to live, work and study. The Australian Government is committed to the continual improvement of our cities.

Voted the least attractive city to grow up in in 2006, Rotterdam has since spent €15m (£13.2m) on improvements to public spaces, housing and safe traffic routes in lower income neighbourhoods in an effort to build a child-friendly city. An open space in a city park forest has been converted into a nature playground – Natuurspeeltuin de Speeldernis – giving children the opportunity for unstructured play. Kids can enjoy the biodiversity of “wild” space, build dens, fires and rafts, and camp out. It now draws 35,000 visitors a year.

In Albania, children are the greatest value for the people. Taking this into account, the local government of Tirana considers the importance of future generations as a priority issue. First of all, they have changed the narrative of the city administration. Usually, in politics, they always worry about the next election. So they could take the conversation to the next level – how do we worry about the next generation, rather than just the next election?

Incheon is turning itself into the business hub of Northeast Asia. The city has a well-established transportation network including Incheon International Airport -- which was ranked first in airport service quality by the Airports Council for 10 consecutive years -- Incheon port and the international business complex. Boasting a highly effective business environment, the IFEZ offers almost everything from logistics and medical services to education and cutting-edge industries.

The Smart Cities Information System (SCIS) is a knowledge platform to exchange data, experience and know-how and to collaborate on the creation of smart cities, providing a high quality of life for its citizens in a clean, energy efficient and climate friendly urban environment. SCIS brings together project developers, cities, research institutions, industry, experts and citizens from across Europe. SCIS focuses on people and their stories – bringing to life best practices and lessons learned from smart projects.

The Urban Data School is an initiative to bring data literacy education to primary and secondary schools. The Urban data school worked with schools in Milton Keynes to enable pupils to critically analyse complex Smart City data sets, and to use data literacy skills to investigate critical urban issues. Data literacy – the ability to use data as part of complex reasoning and to accurately critique and interpret data to ask and answer meaningful questions – is an important civic skill that forms the foundation of an innovative knowledge economy.

CAPE, Community Action Platform for  Energy project will develop an interactive website designed to assess energy use for individuals and communities in Milton Keynes. It will provide data and therefore information for its users. The website will be made available free of charge to residents, community groups, landlords and local businesses. It will give them a ready-to-use tool to jump-start and scale-up energy projects, and to access opportunities for rapidly growing market for energy efficiency and renewable energy systems.

The MK Data Hub is award winning technical, data infrastructure of the MK:Smart project, supporting the collection, integration and use of large amounts of data from many diverse resources relevant to city systems. The datasets include local and national open data, data streams from both key infrastructure networks (energy, transport, water) and other relevant sensor networks (e.g. weather and pollution data), data crowdsourced from social media and mobile applications, etc.